Arts+Culture

Growing up in the Greek Orthodox Church, I learned to confess my sins by kneeling directly in front of the priest. I had no reason to believe that other churches handled this sacrament differently. When I first saw Ingmar Bergman’s The Seventh Seal, I was mesmerized by the scenes of Death and the Knight talking to each other, in part because they were sitting in some sort of booth with a small door between them. What a great cinematic concept, I thought. When I later visited a Catholic church for the first time and saw the rows of confessionals, my response was, “They stole the idea from Bergman!”

It takes 10 or 15 minutes to catch up to the shorthand narrative style of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, the fifth film based on the J. K. Rowling novels (released at about the same time as the seventh and final book in the series).

Somewhere in the sacred opera,in a sea of men, the little voice, fearless in the face of the foreign marketplace of sound booming in the maw of the basilica,came forth, the little voice,like the water bird above the river.

The lost child’s chant, meant to take awaya mother’s grief, came at usfrom behind.

I lift this skull that just hours agothe tempest dug out.How raw is his innocent death,exposed after centuries here in this hillwhere now I lay him down into a fresh grave,dewy among wild thyme buzzing with bees.This hill now seems greaterwith a new human stance.I have added to itmy heart’s force and love,so I can comprehendwhere this resurrected one will goand what he might tell me,thought he covers himself with this umbrella,because it is darker out herethan the light he blazes underground.

Reflections on the Lectionary

Poem

So Jesus’ wealthy friends did prove useful in the end.All four narratives seem to agree on this.Joseph, after all—the one from Arimathea, not his Dad—Joseph pulled strings with Pilate. Did he have to call ina few favors earned in questionable waysso he could claim possession of the corpse?Old Nicodemus too, Jesus’ night-shift friend from the Sanhedrin,Nicodemus makes his own fleeting reprise,carting along a ton—almost—of fragrant spices,nard and myrrh (again!), for preservation purposes.Although where he got such pricey stuff,late on a holiday Friday afternoon, is never quite explained.And that convenient, fresh-hewn, garden tomb;even back in the day, sepulchres such as thosedid not come ten-a-penny! Add in all the hired helpthey must have needed to get stuff from here to thereand, of course, to roll and seal that massive rock . . .Whole thing makes you wonder—doesn’t it?—wonder if that narrow needle’s eye got prized wide open—camel-size, at least—to accommodate these late allies.

Century Marks

Imagine it

Mar 26, 2015

When Toni Morrison taught creative writing at Princeton University, all her students had been told in previous classes to write about what they knew. She said to forget that advice because first, they didn’t know anything yet, and two, she didn’t want to read about their experiences. She told them to imagine people outside their own experience, such as a Mexican waitress in Rio Grande who could barely speak English. It was amazing what these students came up with, Morrison said, when they were given license to imagine something outside their realm of experience (American Theatre, March 10).